B'Elanna Torres
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|
| Species | Half Klingon (maternal) Half human (paternal) |
|---|---|
| Affiliation |
United Federation of Planets Maquis Starfleet |
| Posting | Chief engineer, USS Voyager |
| Position | Chief Engineer |
| Rank | Field commissioned Lieutenant, briefly served as a Field commissioned Lieutenant, junior grade |
| Father | John Torres |
| Mother | Miral |
| Children | Miral Paris |
| Partner | Tom Paris |
| Portrayed by | Roxann Dawson |
B'Elanna Torres /bᵻˈlɑːnə/ is a main character in Star Trek: Voyager played by Roxann Dawson. She is portrayed as a half-human half-Klingon born in 2346 on the Federation colony Kessik IV. Torres joined the Maquis in 2370 and was serving on the Val Jean when taken to the Delta Quadrant. Later, when she joined the USS Voyager, she was given field commissioned rank of Lieutenant, junior grade and posted in engineering. In 2371 she was promoted to Chief Engineer. In 2377, she married Tom Paris and gave birth to their daughter Miral at the beginning of the next year, while Voyager was returning to the Alpha Quadrant.
The official Star Trek: Voyager Companion describes B'Elanna as a young half-human half-Klingon in her twenties who is a member of the Maquis Rebellion.
The producers wanted to hire an actress who could portray B'Elanna's inner struggle between her human and Klingon halves. After Roxann Dawson read for the role, she became the first of the Voyager actors to be cast. Originally, Dawson's makeup differed from the final design; she explained that she had a much more pronounced Klingon forehead and nose and had to wear a set of Klingon teeth, which made her feel uncomfortable. She asked the producers and makeup artist Michael Westmore if they could perhaps make her more attractive and tone down the Klingon makeup. Eventually they came up with a design with which Roxann was happy, something she described as her "beauty monster makeup". Although B'Elanna's character was twenty-five years old when the series began, Dawson was actually thirty-six.
Dawson's initial reaction to the script of the first-season episode "Faces" was one of doubt; she felt that it occurred too early in the series and that she didn't know the character well enough to play her as two separate people. However, she used the episode to learn more about her character, and it became one of her favorite episodes. When the episode aired, she called her parents to ask their opinions, and they replied, "You were good, but the girl that played that Klingon was really great!", which Dawson took as a compliment.
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